Living full-time in Portugal with income from abroad...who can help solve the puzzle?

Tax and legal
1

Hi everyone,

Reading through the threads, I notice a lot of people here have a similar agenda as myself and Portugal seems to be a hot topic, hence I am hoping to find some answers to my many questions :-).

I am a German citizen, currently living and working in Switzerland. Beginning of 2022, I will be able to work remotely for my Swiss employer and I am planning to live in Portugal full-time. I can think of 3 scenarios for my move to remote working and would appreciate your input / advice in order to figure out which one would be financially the most advantages. Also, my work (scientific communications) most likely qualifies for the NHR scheme, which I am hoping to take advantage of.

First scenario (not sure if possible): I stay employed with the Swiss company, but have residency in PT? What needs to happen to achieve this and where would I pay taxes? I read in a different thread about setting up a payroll company. Could somebody please explain how this would work? Also, would my employer have any grief / extra bureaucracy to deal with in order to make this happen? If so, I guess they would not go for that option.

Second scenario (also not sure if possible): I form a company in Switzerland and pay myself a salary in PT. I guess I would pay the 20% income tax on the NHR scheme in PT, but would I or my company also get taxed in Switzerland?

Third scenario: I set up as sole trader in PT, apply for the NHR and have the Swiss company as my client. In this case I also pay 20% income tax, correct? Does anybody know whether it is allowed to have only one client as a freelancer in PT? From Germany, I know that this is not allowed and freelancers need at least 2 clients with a certain distribution of income from both.

If I do set up shop in PT, I need to consider all other costs as well, such as social security, pension scheme, VAT.
Since my main objective is to keep my monthly income roughly the same as it is now and also not become a lot more expensive for my employer, who is paying monthly salary + non-wage labour costs, I would like to figure out how much I need to charge them in order to achieve roughly the same net salary as I have now.

I realise these are plenty of questions and maybe a bit confusing, so I don’t expect anybody to answer them all (or at all). But if anybody has a good accountant or lawyer, that could advise me on this topic, it would be much appreciated to get a contact :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance and good luck with whatever you are trying to achieve :four_leaf_clover:

1 Like
2

Everyone has their own unique situation and for yours, I advise you check with tax lawyers in each country to make sure you are not missing any details.

If you need recommendations, PM me.

3

Hi Sabs. This is a great post and I am very interested to follow up on this. I am also German, also worked in Intl Pharma in CH and now exited Switzerland for perpetual traveling for some time. Currently I am in PT and its certainly a great place (if not the best EU country in my opinion) to get established in the long-term. So there is a lot of overlap with your specific situation. Would be great to catch up on the CH /PT specifics, as you always get a lot of “it depends” answers from any professionals, who may not necessarily fully understand the details of the different jurisdictions as they relate to your personal set-up. Let me know if you’d like to catch up on this.